tradicion revista fall 2012 - LPD Press & Rio Grande Books

gunned, Green stuck to his position
in and around Governor Connelly’s
mansion and fields.” 19 The Texans
only hoped to last until night when
they could withdraw safely from the
battle at Peralta.
A favorite story about the battle
at Peralta that day is the one that
involves Father Ralliere from the
Tomé Church and his group of
choir and altar boys. As the battle
dragged on during that day, Father
Ralliere and the boys are believed
to have climbed the Cerro de Tomé
to watch the battle, but, it is highly
unlikely that the group could have
seen anything but smoke from that
distance. However, for some people,
it was Father Ralliere and his boys
that changed the course of the battle:
On the peak they spent the
entire day singing the litanies—the
Rosary, hymns,
and chants. It is said that
Father Ralliere looked like
Moses and that the devotions
of his little group
swung the victory for the
Union. 20
The prayers may have helped because
unexpectedly in the middle
of the afternoon a severe sandstorm
ended the battle. One Union soldier
described the storm as “one solid
cloud of moving sand and dust in
which one could scarcely breathe,”
and a Texas soldier remembered
that “the wind was blowing clouds
of dust through the town and obscuring
the view in every direction.”
21 The storm lasted until dark,
and at that time the Confederates
withdrew with difficulty to the west
side of the Rio Grande at Los Lunas.
“Late that night the last Texans, wet,
cold, hungry, and sleepy, straggled
into Los Lunas on their way out of
New Mexico.” 22 Below Los Lunas,
Sibley’s troops burned more of their
heavy baggage. 23
Behind the departing Texans,
Los Pinos was in shambles from
the Union artillery fire and the occupation
of the Confederate forces.
Ditch bridges, field enclosures, and
outbuildings were heavily damaged,
and the nearby cottonwood groves
shattered. Some of the damage to
old hacienda and its contents appeared
to have been deliberate vandalism.
Many of the possessions of
the Chavez/Connelly family were
destroyed or stolen. Sometime during
the looting of the hacienda, the
saber that Mariano Chavez had
carried when he was governor of
New Mexico was taken. Many years
later J. Placido Romero, who once
had lived and worked at Los Pinos,
sent the saber to the L. Bradford
Prince, Governor of New Mexico
(1889–1893) and historian. Romero
told Prince in a letter, “I took it [the
saber] away from a Texan when
they [the Confederates] ransacked
the house of Gov. Connelly at the
battle of Los Pinos in 1862.” 24 Connelly
later described his losses in a
letter to Secretary of State William
H. Seward. “My own house, 90 miles
from Santa Fe, was despoiled of its
entire contents, including a valuable
stock of goods, together with everything
in the way of subsistence.” 25
Canby had not shelled Peralta
with its two miles of adobe buildings,
fields, cottonwoods, and irrigation
ditches, but several houses in
Peralta were damaged by artillery
fire that passed over its intended
targets. 26 Union cavalrymen no-
ticed one such dwelling as they
rode through the village following
the Confederate withdrawal. Dismounting
to inspect the damage, a
Third Cavalry officer found a whiskey
bottle and three half-filled glasses
on a recently vacated table inside
the house. A twelve-pounder-solid
shot apparently had penetrated the
adobe wall near the table, and the
partakers of the whiskey had taken
to their heels. The cavalrymen first
finished what was left of the liquor
and then scoured the village for any
remaining Texans. They found only
several wounded Southerners who
had been left in a nearby a makeshift
hospital. 27
Although the Union forces followed
Sibley and his troops, the
miserable Confederates were allowed
to withdraw without further
incident. As a result, Canby was criticized
for not capturing the Confederate
troops, but he had no way
to feed and supply the Confederate
troops if he had captured them. 28
Despite some close calls during the
battle, the loss of men was minimal
for both the Confederate and Union
forces. In many ways the battle was
not a significant one other than it
was the last Civil War battle in New
Mexico. The Middle Rio Grande
Valley, however, had suffered extensive
damage from Sibley and his
troops—livestock lost, families uprooted,
and personal property destroyed.
29
Military Depot
After the Confederates withdrew
from all of New Mexico, the military
found that there was a need to
rebuild depot buildings, improve
transportation, and replenish stores.
TRADICIÓN October 2012 85